Maria Safronova: we can only sell our own dragons

Maria Safronova was born in 1979 into a family of aviation engineers and amateur painters. In 2003, Maria graduated from the Surikov State Academic Institute in Moscow, where she practiced classical techniques of frescoes, mosaics, and icons at the faculty of monumental painting. Her visual style sometimes evokes the Northern Renaissance or Byzantine iconography, combined with contemporary artistic thinking.

Safronova depicts the lives of social institutions—such as kindergartens, schools, hospitals, and offices—and reflects on a person's place within these frameworks. We met Maria in her studio and took a tour of the exhibition "Zone of Bees," where the bee society serves as a metaphor for humanity.